Location: Barbados
We’ve made it to Barbados!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today marks the end of our Atlantic crossing, and we’re all patting our backs at having crossed a whole freaking ocean! This morning, my watch team (watch team 1 with Kackie, Benny, Eli, Nini, and Talia) started off the day strong on our 8-12 work watch. Unfortunately, the wind that had been sustaining us thus far had been slowly dying, and watch team 3 had to drop our jib and our fish sails early in the morning, following a lovely sunrise. During our watch, the wind continued to die, so we had to center-line our forward staysail to prevent it from swinging around. Soon afterward, Calum got our engine working!!!!!!! After its long extended vacation and the constant rumbling of our friend, the motor was back (sadly for me, I had really been savoring the lack of noise), but it was a good thing since we needed it to anchor and to get in at a reasonable time without much wind. The rest of our work watch was filled with the satisfying process of scrubbing the scupper (white edge parts of the deck) clean, rinsing, and polishing it. Nini spent the first portion of the morning making bread for Nicole’s dinner. Speaking of, we had a lovely lunch on time of delicious fried rice made by the lovely Nicole. Following a smashing cleanup, we started off afternoon classes with a fun presentation exchange in leadership, in which we split up into groups and made presentations on our fellow crewmates: Argo superlatives, “Suspect” profiles of people and their “red flags,” and what fast food chain everyone would be. Partway through class, we all heard cries from the first sighting of land since we left Fernando! We all rushed on deck to get a glimpse (it was super low to the horizon, and I couldn’t see anything, to be honest, but it was still cool to be within sight of it). Kiki undertook the mathematical problem of trying to calculate the radius of the earth (which we couldn’t collectively remember) by using the height and the distance away from land we were and arcs and radians and whatnot. TBD how accurate she was (last I checked, we were trying and failing to remember trigonometry rules). At the end of leadership, Benny and Cecily gave us an exciting presentation on what to expect from the island of Barbados – how big it was, key attractions, the currency, and anything else we might want to know. Super hyped, we hopped into a marine biology lecture from Ben about the deep sea and the polar seas. I was personally super excited at all the mentions of marine mammals, whales in particular, in both sections, from whale falls to belugas and bowhead whales and krill……. Anyways, we un-scuba-certified-ers followed marine biology with the final two videos of our open water course! It was a bit hard to hold our attention spans through so much, but we all did it! Now we just have to learn about some charts and pass the final exam. By this point, we could fully see Barbados, and everyone was hyped. We even got “service” (apparently barely enough to send a text by this point). Some of us took some chill time while watch team 3 went on watch, and Nicole and Maddie sped-run cooking to give us an amazing early dinner of lentil soup and dinner rolls, with cake and berries for dessert. What a treat! Many people have converted into screen-agers at this point, eager to call home after so long out on the open sea, while most of us excitedly gazed at the civilization within our sites — full of cargo ships, cars, airplanes in the sky, and tall office/apartment buildings, all things that have become foreign to us. We sped through dinner and squeeze (my question was which part of the boat would you be, my answer was the spreader) accompanied by one of the most glorious sunrises to the west, and a full-moon rise to the east. Some people were literally bouncing with excitement at finally being in the Caribbean. Our cleanup was accompanied by some boat traffic, as we found ourselves in the midst of one full cargo ship going into port while another was backing up. Along with some speeding sail trimming of the main and the main staysail, we hurried through clean up as the sunset. Now (7 pm,) we are about 30 minutes away from anchor, where all hands will be back on deck again to take our sails down and drop anchor. Those who are not on watch are appreciating some long-awaited time to chill and call home. And just like that, our Atlantic crossing and the passage portion of this trip come to a close. While we’re excitedly looking forward to beach fun, scuba diving, and sightseeing in the Caribbean, we are also sentimentally wishing passage a good bye. This marks the last passage on Argo for Calum, Kackie, and Ben, which I’m sure they’re finding bittersweet. In line with the sentimental mood, Calum read us a heartfelt and gorgeously illustrated bedtime story last night, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse” by Charlie Mackesy, which I’ll try to hold close to my heart for the rest of this trip and beyond. It was full of wisdom on love and friendship, asking for help, being brave, and eating cake. Here’s an apt quote from it to sign off:
“Just take this step…
the horizon will look after itself.”
PS To all my family/friends reading this, hiiiiiii! Happy birthday Kel! And sorry if I’m bad at getting in contact. My phone is broken (water damage). I’m doing great 🙂